Database server system monitoring

ABSTRACT

An embodiment of the invention includes a database server system comprising a storage arrangement for storing at least one database and at least one processor operable for receiving a database request over a computer network and accessing the storage arrangement. The processor is further operable for carrying out a monitoring task. The monitoring task determines whether a monitoring description has been stored into the database by the database request. Furthermore, the monitoring task performs a monitoring operation which is specified in the monitoring description. The monitoring operation yields at least one result value. The monitoring task submits a monitoring result request in order to insert the at least one result value into the database. The invention also relates to a computer program product and to a method for performing a monitoring operation on a database server system.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to how a database server system can bemonitored. Computer databases allow storage and access to various typesof data. Typically, data is stored in databases within tables. Data maybe stored in the database and extracted from the database using databasequeries. Special types of databases, such as relational databases, maybe employed. Databases may run on dedicated server systems; thesesystems may be dedicated computer systems which allow for remotedatabase access. Databases may be accessed remotely over a computernetwork. Such a computer network may be a local computer network or alarge-scale computer network such as the World Wide Web. Database serversystems host one or multiple databases and provide functionality fordatabase access via a computer network. A database server system mayallow a multitude of users to simultaneously connect to any hosteddatabase.

To provide information regarding available resources, performancecharacteristics, or further data related to the operation and thefunctionality of the database, the database server system typicallyprovides functionality for gathering such information. The informationmay be the amount of free disk space available on the database serversystem, the amount of free system memory available on the databaseserver system, the processor load of one or more processors of thedatabase server system, the database server system temperature, or anyother measurable system characteristic.

SUMMARY

An embodiment includes a database server system comprising a storagearrangement for storing at least one database and at least one processoroperable for receiving a database request over a computer network andaccessing the storage arrangement. The processor may also carry out amonitoring task. The monitoring task may determine whether a monitoringdescription has been stored into the database by the database request.Additionally, the monitoring task may perform a monitoring operationspecified in the monitoring description. The monitoring operation mayyield one or more result values. The monitoring task may submit a resultmonitoring request to insert the one or more result values into thedatabase.

Another embodiment relates to a computer program product for performinga monitoring operation. The computer program product comprises acomputer readable storage medium having program instructions embodiedtherewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not atransitory signal per se. The program instructions may be readable by adatabase server system. According to the program instructions, it may bedetermined whether a monitoring description has been stored into adatabase associated with the database server system. Additionally, theprogram instructions may cause a monitoring operation which may bespecified in the monitoring description to be performed. The monitoringoperation yields one or more result values. Additionally, the programinstructions may submit a result monitoring request to insert the one ormore result values into the database.

The disclosure also relates to a method for monitoring a database serversystem. According to the method, a monitoring specification may betransmitted via a database request over a computer network to thedatabase server system, thereby storing a monitoring description into adatabase. The method comprises determining whether the monitoringdescription has been stored into the database and performing amonitoring operation specified in the monitoring description. Themonitoring operation may yield one or more result values. A resultmonitoring request may be submitted to insert the one or more resultvalues into the database. The one or more result values may then betransmitted over the computer network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute partof this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. The embodiments herein are presently preferred, it beingunderstood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precisearrangements and instrumentalities shown herein.

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a database server system,according to embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a database server system in acomputer network, according to embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the organization of softwarewithin a database server system, according to embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method whereby a client may obtainmonitoring information from a database server system, according toembodiments.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a table within adatabase, according to embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method illustrating actions performed by adatabase and a monitoring task, according to embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a method illustrating actions performed by adatabase and a monitoring task, according to embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of a monitoring description,according to embodiments.

FIG. 9 depicts a cloud computing environment, according to embodiments.

FIG. 10 depicts abstraction model layers according, to embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product at any possible technical detail level of integration.The computer program product may include a computer readable storagemedium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereonfor causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

According to embodiments, a database server system comprises a storagearrangement for storing at least one database and at least oneprocessor, operable for receiving a database request over a computernetwork and accessing the storage arrangement. The processor may alsocarry out a monitoring task. The monitoring task comprises operationsfor determining whether a monitoring description has been stored in thedatabase by the database request. Furthermore, the monitoring task maycause a monitoring operation specified in the monitoring description tobe performed. The monitoring operation may yield one or more resultvalues. The monitoring task may submit a monitoring result request toinsert the one or more result values into the database. Accordingembodiments, the database server system may subsequently transmit theone or more result values over a computer network to a client. Accordingto embodiments, the database server system may receive a databaserequest for the monitoring result from the client, and subsequentlytransmit the one or more result values back to the client.

Due to security concerns, database server systems may only allow accessto the database or the databases contained therein. However, a databasemay be a system which does not allow a client to obtain informationabout the state of the database server system on which the database isrunning. In real-world applications, however, it may be necessary toobtain information about the database server systems. For example,information about the database server system may be required to measurethe amount of free system memory remaining on the database serversystem. Therefore, a separate access path may need to be provided forobtaining information relating to the database server system, forinstance via SSH, RDP, Telnet, etc. Additional options for accessing thedatabase server system may lead to decreased system security. Thedatabase server system, according to embodiments, may be monitored overa computer network. In embodiments, a monitoring result value may beobtained by a client even though the client only has access to adatabase of the database server system.

The database server system may receive a database request. According toembodiments of the invention, the database request may include amonitoring description. The database request which includes themonitoring description may be, for example, an SQL query. According toembodiments, the SQL query may be an SQL INSERT query. The monitoringdescription may specify how the monitoring operation shall be performed.For example, the characteristic of the database server system that is tobe monitored may be specified by the monitoring description. Thischaracteristic may be the amount of free disk space available on thedatabase server system, the amount of free system memory available onthe database server system, the processor load of one or more processorsof the database server system, the temperature of the database serversystem, or any other system characteristic. According to embodiments,the database server system may provide means for measuring theaforementioned characteristics. After a result of the monitoring hasbeen determined, the result may be stored in the database.

According to embodiments of the invention, the monitoring result requestmay be an SQL query. The monitoring result request may also be anothertype of database request. The monitoring result request may also beimplemented as any other action which causes the database to store theone or more result values into the database. For example, the monitoringresult request may be an inter-process communication, triggered by themonitoring task. The monitoring result request may also be implementedby performing a write operation to write data to a particular memory orhard disk location on the database server system. The database maydetect that write operation and include the result into the database.

The database server system may be any type of computer-programmabledevice featuring a storage arrangement. The storage arrangement mayprovide at least one entity for data storage. The entities for datastorage may include hard disks, flash devices, random access memory orany other entity for data storage. The storage arrangement may containany number and any type of entity for data storage. According toembodiments, the database server system may be a dedicated databaseserver. However, the database server system may also run tasks which arenot related to database processing.

According to embodiments, the database server system hosts a dedicateddatabase. The database may be a relational database. The database may bean in-memory database, where the database resides in the main memory ofthe database server system. In embodiments, the database may be anactive database, including an event-driven architecture that may respondto conditions both inside and outside the database, or a deductivedatabase whose actions may be governed by logic programming Inembodiments, the database may be an instance of a distributed database,where the database server system may host one instance of thedistributed database. In embodiments, the database may be a databasewithin a cloud environment. Cloud computing includes a model of servicedelivery for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a sharedpool of configurable computing resources (e.g. networks, networkbandwidth, servers, processing, memory, storage, applications, virtualmachines, and services) that may be rapidly provisioned and releasedwith minimal management effort or interaction with a provider of theservice.

The database may be a MySQL database, a PostgreSQL database, a MongoDBdatabase, a MariaDB database, a Microsoft SQL Server database, an Oracledatabase, a Sybase database, an SAP HANA database, an IBM DB2 databaseor any other type of database. In embodiments, clients may manipulate adatabase by means of database queries. The database may be capable ofprocessing database queries in the SQL (structured query language)format. However, database queries of other formats may also be acceptedaccording to some embodiments. A database request may trigger variousactions by the database. For example, data may be stored into thedatabase and retrieved from the database.

According to embodiments, the database server system may include acommunication interface. The communication interface may be a networkinterface for communication over a local network, over a wide areanetwork and/or over the World Wide Web. The communication interface mayprovide means for performing authentication and encryption of data sentand received by the database server system.

The database server system may be operated using an operating systemsuch as WINDOWS, LINUX/UNIX, MACOS, or any other operating system.According to embodiments, the operation system may assign differentaccess privileges to different tasks. For instance, some tasks runningon the database server system may run in administrator mode. Tasksrunning in administrator mode may have far-reaching access privilegesallowing the tasks not only to execute tasks and to read data files, butalso to delete data files and terminate tasks which have been started bya user. Deletion of data files and termination of active tasks mayobstruct the operation of the database server system; therefore, caremay be taken to ensure that the monitoring task does not negativelyaffect the operation of the database server system.

According to embodiments, the monitoring task may be instantiated in avirtual memory address space which is separate from a virtual memoryaddress space assigned to operations for receiving the database requestand accessing the storage arrangement according to the operationincluded in the database request. In state of the art operating systems,each process may be assigned a separate virtual address space. Addresseswithin the virtual address space may be mapped to physical memoryaddresses. The availability of a virtual address space may facilitatememory management where data is frequently moved between the main systemmemory and storage media of a computer system. In embodiments, amonitoring task may be executed in an address space that is not assignedto a database of the database server system, and may therefore becapable of measuring a system characteristic of the database serversystem. However, in embodiments, a monitoring task and a database taskmay reside in the same address space, or within the same virtual addressspace.

According to embodiments, the monitoring task may be distinct from atask which runs the database on the database server system. This impliesthat the monitoring task may not be a part of the database which is runon the database server system. However, the monitoring task may not needto be completely independent from the task which runs the database. Forinstance, according to some embodiments, the monitoring task may be achild process of a process which runs the database. This means that,according to embodiments, the monitoring task may be started wheneverthe database is started. According to embodiments, the monitoring taskmay be completely separate from the database. According to embodiments,the database and the monitoring task may run on different processors.

According to embodiments, operations for receiving the database requestmay include receiving the monitoring description and writing it to afile on the storage arrangement, the file being external to thedatabase, where the monitoring task checks whether the file has beencreated or has been updated in order to obtain the monitoringdescription. The monitoring task may read the file to obtain themonitoring description. In embodiments, the monitoring description maybe made available to the monitoring task without the need for themonitoring task to poll the database. According to embodiments, the filemay reside in a file system on which the database is stored. Accordingto embodiments, the file may be stored on the same physical storagemedium as the database, or on a distinct storage medium which may bepart of the storage arrangement. The file may be located within an areaof the file system which may only be written to by the database.According to embodiments, the file may be located within an area of afile system which may only be read by the monitoring task.

The file may be stored by the database using a dedicated request forexporting the data to the file system. For example, the database mayreceive an SQL EXPORT query which triggers a file export operation.According to embodiments, the file may be written to the storagearrangement when the database request with the monitoring description isreceived by the database. For example, writing the file to the storagearrangement may be triggered when data is written to a specific locationwithin the database. According to embodiments, the file export operationmay be triggered whenever the database receives a database request of acertain type, or which submits data identified by the database as amonitoring description. The monitoring task may check repeatedly whetherthe database has created or updated said file on the storagearrangement. For instance, the monitoring task may check for thecreation or for an update of said every 5 seconds, every second, every10 milliseconds, every millisecond, etc. The file may contain amonitoring description. According to embodiments, the monitoring taskmay process the monitoring description after it has obtained themonitoring description.

According to embodiments, the monitoring task may obtain the monitoringdescription by submitting a monitoring description request to thedatabase. This embodiment may allow the monitoring description to beavailable to the monitoring task on database server systems where thedatabase has no write access to a file system of the storagearrangement. The monitoring description request may be an SQL query. Forinstance, the database request may be an SQL SELECT query. In this case,a data field may be selected from the database and made available to themonitoring task. The data field may contain the monitoring description.The data field may contain binary data, and it may contain text data,such as a script file.

According to embodiments, the database may be a relational database andcomprise a first table for storing the monitoring description and asecond table for storing the one or more result values. A database tablemay comprise columns and rows of data. Data may be stored in cells,where each cell is located in a particular row and in a particularcolumn of the database table. According to embodiments, the monitoringdescription and the one or more result values may be stored in the samedatabase table, but in separate rows or in separate columns According toembodiments, multiple monitoring descriptions may be stored within onedatabase table. According to embodiments, multiple result values may bestored in one database table. Furthermore, there may be embodimentswhere separate database tables are provisioned for different users ofthe database server system.

According to embodiments, a client may send multiple requests whichcontain monitoring descriptions. The requests may be stored in a firstdatabase table, and processed by the monitoring task. The monitoringtask may store multiple result values in a second database table. Theresult values may be retrieved by a client, for instance, by sending anSQL SELECT query to the database server system. According toembodiments, multiple clients may send requests containing monitoringdescriptions to the database server system. The monitoring descriptionsmay be stored in different database tables and processed by themonitoring task. The monitoring task may determine multiple resultvalues which are stored into separate database tables. Theaforementioned clients may access the result values, for instance, bysending SQL select queries to the database system. According toembodiments, multiple monitoring descriptions may be processed bymultiple monitoring tasks on the database server system, said monitoringtasks running in parallel. According to embodiments, a queue system formonitoring descriptions may be implemented on the database server systemso that multiple requests can be processed sequentially by themonitoring task.

According to embodiments, the monitoring description may compriseexecutable and/or interpretable code for performing the monitoringoperation, and the monitoring task may comprise executing and/orinterpreting the executable and/or interpretable code. In embodiments,precise instructions for performing the monitoring operation may beprovided to the database server system. The executable code may be in abinary format such as an executable file. For instance, an executablefile on a WINDOWS system may be an EXE file. However, the binaryexecutable file may also have an alternate format. The executable codemay contain instructions for performing a monitoring operation. Theexecutable code may cause the database server system to perform ameasurement. The measurement may determine at least one systemcharacteristic, for instance, the amount of free disk space available onthe database server system, the amount of free system memory availableon the database server system, the processor load of one or moreprocessors of the database server system, the database server systemtemperature, or any other system characteristic which is measurable.

According to embodiments, the monitoring task may be configured tointerface directly with the executable code. For instance, theexecutable code may deliver a return value directly to the monitoringtask so that the one or more result values can be submitted to thedatabase. This may include using a return value, by means ofinter-process communication, by means of reading and writing to a datafile or a memory location, or by other means of data transmission.According to embodiments, the monitoring task may provide additionalinformation to the executable code. Additional information may beprovided to the executable code for instance by means of command lineoptions. Command line options include commands which are appended to thename of a file containing executable code, within a command forexecuting the code contained within the file. The additional informationmay comprise specific information the executable code may require toperform the desired measurements. For instance, regarding executablecode which is intended to measure the available amount of disk space onthe database server system, the monitoring task may provide theexecutable code with information on the number of hard disks which arepart of the storage arrangement and the identifiers of those hard disks.The executable code may use this information to determine the storagespace available on said hard disks.

In embodiments, the monitoring description may contain interpretablecode. Interpretable code may be code which is human-readable and doesnot need to be compiled before it can be run by the database serversystem. The interpretable code may be in the format of a script languagesuch as Python, Ruby, Perl, TCL, or any other script language. Theinterpretable code may cause the database server system to perform ameasurement. The measurement may determine at least one systemcharacteristic, for instance relating to the amount of free disk spaceavailable on the database server system, the amount of free systemmemory available on the database server system, the processor load ofone or more processors of the database server system, the databaseserver system temperature, or any other system characteristic which ismeasurable.

According to embodiments, one or more environments for executing ascript language may run on the database server system. The monitoringtask may be configured to directly interface with the interpretablecode. A return value may be obtained by various ways from theinterpretable code. For instance, the interpretable code may provide areturn value or data to a file or memory location. As previouslydescribed with regard to executable code, it may be possible to provideadditional information to interpretable code. For instance, additionalinformation may be provided to the interpretable code by means ofcommand line options.

According to embodiments, the monitoring description comprisesexecutable and/or interpretable code for performing the monitoringoperation and metadata related to the executable and/or interpretablecode, where the monitoring task uses the metadata to choose a procedurefor executing and/or interpreting the code. The metadata may be in ahuman-readable format or in a binary format. The metadata may describeto the monitoring task how to handle the executable and/or interpretablecode. For instance, the metadata may contain information regardingwhether the code is executable or interpretable code. If the code isexecutable code, the metadata may contain information which specifies onwhich operating system the executable code may be run. Multiple piecesof executable code may be provided within one monitoring description.The monitoring task may choose a suitable piece of executable code usingthe information obtained from the metadata. Likewise, the metadata maycontain information regarding the format of interpretable code providedwithin the monitoring description. For instance, the metadata mayspecify which script language the interpretable code conforms to andwhich version of an environment for running the interpretable code isrequired.

The metadata may include scheduling information. Scheduling informationmay describe when to run the executable and/or interpretable code. Forinstance, it may be specified that the executable and/or interpretablecode shall be run with a certain time delay or at a specific time anddate. It may be specified that the executable and/or interpretable codeshall be run at regular intervals. For instance, the executable and/orinterpretable code may be scheduled to run hourly, daily or weekly. Thescheduling information may be provided in a format which can beinterpreted by either the monitoring task or by a system-wide scheduler.For instance, the scheduling information may be provided in a formatwhich can be interpreted by a CRON daemon on LINUX/UNIX or MACOS Xsystems. A CRON daemon may be a scheduler which can start recurringtasks. For this purpose, the CRON daemon accesses a so-called CRONTABfile which contains scheduling information. According to embodiments,the monitoring task may interface with the CRON daemon by writingscheduling information into the CRONTAB file. According to embodiments,the monitoring task may also delete scheduling information from theCRONTAB file. The monitoring specification may contain specialinstructions regarding when to write scheduling information into theCRONTAB file and when to delete said scheduling information from theCRONTAB file.

According to embodiments, the monitoring operation may includedetermining the amount of free storage space available on the storagearrangement. The term free storage space may refer to storage spaceavailable on storage media such as hard disks, on flash drives, onnetwork drives, or on other internal or external drives attached to thedatabase server system. The term free storage may refer to free storagespace available in the RAM or another volatile memory of the databaseserver system. The amount of storage space may be determined by runninga special system call or operating system command which allows todetermine the amount of free storage. Free storage space may bedetermined using any other process which can be run on the databaseserver system to determine the amount of available free storage space.

Free storage may be determined and returned in a unit such as bytes,kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes or petabytes. The amount of free storagespace may also be returned in any other unit. The monitoring operationmay separately determine the amount of free space available on differentstorage media contained within the storage arrangement. For instance,the monitoring operation may return that 2 gigabytes of free space areavailable on hard disk A, while 4 gigabytes of free space are availableon hard disk B. According to embodiments, the amount of free spaceavailable on all storage media within the storage arrangement is firstsummed up before being returned as a result of the monitoring operation.

The present disclosure is not limited to determining storage space. Awide number of different system characteristics may be measured.According to embodiments, the monitoring task is not limited to onlyperforming a monitoring operation. Further operations may be performedwhich are not strictly monitoring operations. For instance, themonitoring task may also perform system management operations. A systemmanagement operation may perform an action which brings about some typeof change to the system. A system management operation may be anoperation to free disk space, an operation to connect to an externalstorage unit, an operation to terminate undesired tasks running on thedatabase server system, or any other operation.

All of the aforementioned operations which are part of the monitoringoperation may be performed by executable and/or interpretable code whoseexecution or interpretation may be started by the monitoring operation.According embodiments, the executable and/or interpretable code may bechecked for viruses by a dedicated software for virus scanning which mayscan the executable and/or the interpretable code before it is run.

According to embodiments, the monitoring description may be in acompressed data format. The monitoring description may be compressed ina format such as ZIP, RAR, gzip, or any other compressed file format.According to embodiments, the compression format may be a losslesscompression format. The term file compression may describe a methodwhereby an input file with a certain file size is processed so that itsfile size is reduced. The processed file may no longer be readable byordinary means, but may require decompression before it can be readagain. In embodiments, bandwidth may be saved when the monitoringdescription is transmitted to the database server system in a compressedformat.

The compressed monitoring description may contain multiple files. Forinstance, the compressed monitoring description may contain a fileincluding executable or interpretable code, and a file which containsmetadata. The compressed monitoring description may contain furtherfiles specifying how the monitoring description is to be handled. Forinstance, the description may indicate the field within the databasewhere it should be stored. According to embodiments, data which is notcompressed may be prepended or appended to the compressed monitoringdescription.

According to embodiments, the monitoring description may be transmittedto the database server system as a compressed monitoring description andunpacked before it is stored into the database. According toembodiments, the monitoring description may be extracted by themonitoring task when the monitoring task processes the monitoringdescription. According to embodiments, the monitoring description may bestored in compressed form within the storage arrangement of the databaseserver system. In this case, the monitoring description may bedecompressed whenever it is to be executed.

According embodiments, the monitoring description may not be compressed,and is provided in an uncompressed container format. A container formatmay contain multiple files, and the files contained therein may not becompressed. The uncompressed container file may be provided in adedicated container format such as TAR. In embodiments, files may beprovided in a container format and not in a compressed format becausecompression and decompression may require computing resources which arerequired or reserved for other tasks on the database server system.

According to embodiments, the monitoring task may have restricted accessprivileges within the database server system. In embodiments, themonitoring task may be prevented from deleting files or carrying outother undesired actions. The monitoring task may have the same accessprivileges on the database server system as the database server system.In embodiments, the access privileges of the database may be restricted,and therefore the access privileges of the monitoring task may berestricted. In embodiments, this may be the case where the monitoringprocess is a child process of the database process.

According to embodiments, the database operations include deleting theone or more result values from a field/fields within the database apredetermined amount of time after the one or more result values havebeen inserted into the database. In embodiments, a result value may notbe kept within the database for an indefinite amount of time. Forinstance, the table may be used by multiple clients and it may beundesirable that a client may obtain a result value which has beenrequested by another client. This may be prevented by deleting theresult value. Additionally, result values may be deleted after a certainamount of time so that the database does not overflow when a largeamount of monitoring operations is performed. This is especiallyrelevant in an implementation of the database server system where newresult values do not overwrite result values which have been storedpreviously into the database, and where a new data field is allocatedfor each new result value.

The disclosure also relates to a computer program product for performinga monitoring operation, the computer program product comprising acomputer readable storage medium having program instructions embodiedtherewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not atransitory signal per se, the program instructions readable by adatabase server system to cause the database server system to perform amethod comprising: determining whether a monitoring description has beenstored into a database of the database server system, performing amonitoring operation specified in the monitoring description, themonitoring operation yielding one or more result values, and submittinga monitoring result request in order to insert the at least one resultvalue into the database. The computer program product may perform amonitoring task in the database server system. In embodiments, thecomputer program product may perform a monitoring operation specified bya client even though the client only has access to a limited number ofdatabases in the database server system.

According to embodiments, the computer program product may be capable ofperforming database queries. The computer program product may be capableof reading and writing data to a storage arrangement, said storagearrangement preferably being a storage arrangement within a databaseserver system. The computer program may perform a monitoring operation,where the monitoring operation may be specified in the monitoringdescription. Performing the monitoring operation may relate to directlyperforming a task specified in the monitoring description. Performingthe monitoring operation may involve starting another process whichperforms a task specified in the monitoring description.

According to embodiments, determining whether a monitoring descriptionhas been stored into the database by the computer program productcomprises monitoring whether a file containing the monitoringdescription has been created or has been updated within a storagearrangement of the database server system. In embodiments, themonitoring description may be obtained by the computer program productwithout the computer program product polling the database. For instance,the computer program product may repeatedly check whether a file with acertain name has been created or updated within the storage arrangement.According to embodiments, the computer program product may contain aloop, the loop containing commands which perform a file system check foran update or for the creation of a file containing the monitoringdescription.

According to embodiments, determining whether a monitoring descriptionhas been stored into the database includes submitting a monitoringdescription request in order to obtain the monitoring description storedin the database. The monitoring description request may be a databaserequest. In particular, the monitoring description may be an SQL query.The computer program product may include code for accessing a database.The computer program product may perform database access over a commandline interface, over a network connection, by means of inter-processcommunication, or by any other means of data transfer. Database accessby the computer program product may involve sending data to the databaseas well as receiving data from the database.

According to embodiments, the computer program product may executeand/or interpret code for performing the monitoring operation, and thecode may be contained in the monitoring description. In embodiments, thecomputer program product may perform monitoring operations according toan executable or interpretable specification. This may includetriggering the execution and/or interpretation of said code. Forinstance, the computer program product may start executable code via acommand line or shell interface of an operating system which is runningon the database server system. This may involve starting the code sothat it is directly executed on the database server system, for instancein the case that the code is provided in .EXE format. According toembodiments, the computer program product invokes an environment forinterpreting script code so that the code may be interpreted. Forexample, an environment for running Python, Ruby, Perl, TCL, or anyother script language may be invoked for interpreting the code.According to embodiments, the code which shall be interpreted may bewritten in a shell script. The computer program product may invoke ashell or command line interface in order to interpret the code.

Performing a monitoring operation may involve running shell or commandline operations. Performing a monitoring operation may also involverunning portions of executable code. According to embodiments, thecomputer program product may be capable of processing a monitoringdescription which contains both executable and interpretable code. Theexecutable and the interpretable code may be run sequentially or inparallel. If multiple executable and/or interpretable pieces of code areincluded in the monitoring description, these may also be run inparallel.

According to embodiments, the computer program product uses metadataincluded in the monitoring description to determine how to executeand/or interpret code for performing the monitoring operation, and thecode may be contained in the monitoring description. Employing metadatahas enables the monitoring task to determine how to execute and/orinterpret the code for performing the monitoring operation. Usingmetadata included in the monitoring description may involve opening afile containing the metadata and interpreting the content of themetadata. The metadata may contain data in a format which can beinterpreted by the monitoring task. This format may be a binary formator a human-readable format. The metadata may also be provided in ascript language, which may be a common script language such as Python,Ruby, Perl, TCL, or any other script language. The computer program mayuse the metadata to determine whether the code provided within themonitoring specification shall be executed or interpreted. The computerprogram product may also use the metadata to determine the scriptinglanguage of interpretable code contained in the metadata, so that anappropriate environment for interpreting the code may selected. Thecomputer program product may also employ information from the metadatato determine a schedule according to which the code may be executed orinterpreted.

The computer program product may decompress the monitoring descriptionto obtain executable and/or interpretable code contained in themonitoring description. The computer program product may be able todecompress files which are compressed in a format such as ZIP, RAR,gzip, or any other compressed file format. According to embodiments, thecomputer program product may contain code allowing the computer programproduct to decompress the monitoring description. According toembodiments, the computer program product may invoke an externalcomputer program so that the monitoring description is decompressed.According to embodiments, the computer program product may decompressthe contents of the monitoring description and store them on a hard diskor onto flash storage of the database server system. According toembodiments, the computer program product may decompress the contents ofthe monitoring description and store them into a main memory of adatabase server system. For instance, the contents may be stored into aRAM associated with a database server system.

The disclosure also relates to a method for monitoring a database serversystem. The method may include transmitting a monitoring description viaa database request over a computer network to the database server systemand storing the monitoring description into a database, determiningwhether the monitoring description has been stored into the database,performing a monitoring operation specified in the monitoringdescription, the monitoring operation yielding one or more resultvalues, submitting a monitoring result request in order to insert theone or more result values into the database, and transmitting the resultvalue(s) over the computer network. In embodiments, the method allows aclient to perform a monitoring operation on a database server systemover a computer network, even though the client only has access to alimited number of databases on the database server system.

A monitoring request may be transmitted by a client to the databaseserver system. The requests may be transmitted over a computer network.The computer network may be a local computer network. For instance, thelocal computer network may be a network according to the Ethernetstandard. The computer network may have any topology, for instance aring topology, a tree topology or a bus topology. Any type oftransmission technology may be employed for data transmission. Forinstance, data may be transmitted over coaxial cables, over opticalfiber, over power lines or over any other transmission media. Thecomputer network which is employed according to somebody embodiments ofthe invention may be a local area network. According to embodiments, thecomputer network may be the World Wide Web.

The client may be a computer client system having access privileges toaccess one or more databases. For instance, the computer client systemmay be capable of sending requests to a database, and to store data intothe database and to retrieve data from the database by means of theserequests. Requests may be transmitted in a common database requestformat. According to embodiments, the requests may be SQL queries.

The database server system may be a computer system which is connectedto aforementioned computer network. The database server system mayinclude a database. According to embodiments, the method includes amonitoring description being stored into the database, wherein saidmonitoring description has previously been transmitted to the databaseserver system over the computer network. According to embodiments, amonitoring task may periodically check whether a monitoring descriptionhas been stored into the database. Additionally or alternatively, themonitoring task may check whether a monitoring description has beenstored into the database whenever the database is accessed.

A monitoring operation specified in the monitoring specification may beexecuted. According to embodiments, this monitoring operation may beperformed or triggered by aforementioned monitoring task. The monitoringoperation may measure a system characteristic. This characteristic maybe the amount of free disk space available on the database serversystem, the amount of free system memory available on the databaseserver system, the processor load of one or more processors of thedatabase server system, the database server system temperature or anyother kind of system characteristic. Performing the monitoring operationmay also include other operations which may not be considered asmeasurement operations. For instance, the monitoring operation may alsoinclude system maintenance operations.

According to embodiments, a monitoring result request may be submittedto insert the one or more result values into the database after themonitoring operation has been performed. The monitoring result requestmay be a database request. According to embodiments, the monitoringresult request may be an SQL query. The monitoring result request maystore one or more result values into the database. Another databaserequest may be submitted to the database to delete a field or fieldscontaining at least one result value from the database.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the one or more resultvalues may be transmitted over the network after the monitoring resultrequest has been completed successfully. The monitoring result requestmay be transmitted over the network in various ways. For instance, aclient may perform a polling request. The client may repeatedly poll thedatabase server system in order to determine whether at least one resultvalue has been written to the database. If at least one result value hasbeen written to the database, the result value may be transmitted to theclient over the computer network. According to embodiments, the clientmay send a subsequent database request to delete the result value fromthe database of the database server system.

According to embodiments, a client may send a database request to thedatabase server system which contains the monitoring description. Thedatabase request may finish when at least one result value has beendetermined and written into the database. The database server system maytransmit the at least one result value to the client. According toembodiments, the client is not required to send a polling request toobtain the result value. According to embodiments, the result value mayalso be obtained in another manner by the client. For instance, theresult value may be transmitted back to the client over a networkconnection which is not a database connection.

According to embodiments, monitoring operations are performed by amonitoring task located in virtual memory address space separate fromthe virtual address space within which database operations may beperformed on the database server system. Therefore, the monitoring taskmay be a task which is separate from the database itself. Inembodiments, the monitoring task may be executed in an address spacewhich is not assigned to a database of the database server system, andmay therefore be capable of measuring a system characteristic of thedatabase server system. The method as described is not limited by to theactions and the means of execution as described above.

It is to be understood that although this disclosure includes a detaileddescription on cloud computing, implementation of the teachings recitedherein are not limited to a cloud computing environment. Rather,embodiments of the present invention are capable of being implemented inconjunction with any other type of computing environment now known orlater developed.

Cloud computing is a model of service deliver for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing,memory, storage, applications, virtual machines, and services) that canbe rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort orinteraction with a provider of the service. This cloud model may includeat least five characteristics, at least three service models, and atleast four deployment models.

Characteristics are as follows:

On-demand self-service: a cloud consumer can unilaterally provisioncomputing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, asneeded automatically without requiring human interaction with theservice's provider.

Broad network access: capabilities are available over a network andaccessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneousthin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).

Resource pooling: the provider's computing resources are pooled to servemultiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physicaland virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according todemand. There is a sense of location independence in that the consumergenerally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of theprovided resources, but may be able to specify location at a higherlevel of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter).

Rapid elasticity: capabilities can be rapidly and elasticallyprovisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out andrapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilitiesavailable for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can bepurchased in any quantity at any time.

Measured service: cloud systems automatically control and optimizeresource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level ofabstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can bemonitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both theprovider and consumer of the utilized service.

Service Models are as follows:

Software as a Service (SaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto use the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure.The applications are accessible from various client devices through athin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based e-mail).The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloudinfrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage,or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exceptionof limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquiredapplications created using programming languages and tools supported bythe provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure including networks, servers, operating systems, orstorage, but has control over the deployed applications and possiblyapplication hosting environment configurations.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): the capability provided to theconsumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and otherfundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy andrun arbitrary software, which can include operating systems andapplications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure, but has control over operating systems, storage,deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networkingcomponents (e.g., host firewalls).

Deployment Models are as follows:

Private cloud: the cloud infrastructure is operated solely for anorganization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party andmay exist on-premises or off-premises.

Community cloud: the cloud infrastructure is shared by severalorganizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns(e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and complianceconsiderations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third partyand may exist on-premises or off-premises.

Public cloud: the cloud infrastructure is made available to the generalpublic or a large industry group and is owned by an organization sellingcloud services.

Hybrid cloud: the cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or moreclouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities, butare bound together by standardized or proprietary technology thatenables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting forload-balancing between clouds).

A cloud computing environment is service oriented with a focus onstatelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability.At the heart of cloud computing is an infrastructure that includes anetwork of interconnected nodes.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration ofa database server system 101, according embodiments. The database serversystem 101 may contain a processor 102 and a main memory 103. Thedatabase server system 101 may also contain hard disks 104A-C. The harddisks 104A-C may constitute the storage allotment of the database serversystem 101. The hard disks 104A-C may be special hard disks for servers,optimized for durability, reliability and speed. The storage arrangementmay provide a large amount of disk storage on which at least onedatabase may be stored. According to embodiments, the database serversystem may contain any number of hard drives. According to embodiments,a hard drive may contain other types of data storage, as well. Thedatabase server system 101 also comprises a network controller 105. Thenetwork controller may be capable of communicating over a network portof the database server system. The database server system 101 may beprovided in a rack housing so that it can be mounted in a server rack.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a database server system 201,according to embodiments. The database server system 201 may beconnected to a computer network 202 which may be a local network such asan Ethernet network, a local area network, the World Wide Web, or anyother type of computer network. The database server system 201 may beconnected to database clients 203A-D over the computer network 202. Thedatabase clients 203A-D may be personal computers, laptop computers,tablet computers, server systems of any kind, mobile phones, or any typeof computer or terminal device. The database clients 203A-D may containsoftware allowing the database 204 to establish database connections tothe database server system 201. Such a database connection may be usedto store data on the database server system 201 and to retrieve datafrom the database server system 201.

The database clients 203A-D may use the database server system 201 tostore different types of data, for instance business data, backup dataor any other type of data. In embodiments, the database clients 203A-Dmay need to store large amounts of data on the database server system201. In embodiments, it may be necessary for the database clients 203A-Dto determine how much disk space there is still available on thedatabase server system 201. However, because the database clients 203A-Dmay only have access to a single database 204 located within thedatabase server system 201, and not to any other system functions of thedatabase server system 201, the database clients 203A-D may not becapable of retrieving information relating to the amount of disk spaceremaining on the database server system 201.

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the organization of softwarewithin a database server system 301, according to embodiments. Thedatabase server system 301 may feature an operating system 302 such asWINDOWS, UNIX/LINUX, MACOS, or any other operating system. A database303 and a monitoring task 304 may run on the operating system 302. Thedatabase server system 301 may feature a remote access code 305. Theremote access code 305 may be code which allows access to the databaseserver system 301 via SSH, RDP, Telnet or another method for remoteaccess. The remote access code 305 may allow a client to perform amonitoring operation on the database server system 301. However, theremote access code 305 may only be used by clients with administratorprivileges. Because some clients with access to the database 303 may nothave administrator privileges, those clients may not use the remoteaccess code 305. Instead, they may transmit a monitoring description tothe database 303.

The monitoring task 304 may continuously check whether a monitoringdescription has been submitted to the computer server system. Once themonitoring task 304 detects that a monitoring description has beensubmitted to the database server system 301, the monitoring task 304 mayextract executable code 306 from the monitoring description via anextraction operation 307. The executable code 306 may then be run inorder to perform a monitoring operation. This monitoring operation mayreturn at least one result value which is stored by the executable code306 into the database 303 via a write-back operation 308.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating how a client may obtain monitoringinformation from a database server system, according to embodiments. At401, the client may prepare a monitoring description for a databaseserver system. The monitoring description may include executable and/orinterpretable code for performing a monitoring operation. At 402, theclient may transmit the monitoring description to the database serversystem. The transmission step 402 may involve transmitting a databaserequest to the database server system, said database request containingthe monitoring description. At 403, the client may wait for a certainamount of time for a monitoring operation to be performed. At 404, theclient may transmit another database request to the database serversystem and, in response to the database request, receive a result valuewhich has been determined by the monitoring operation.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of database tables within a database501, according to embodiments. The database 501 may contain a firsttable 502 for storing monitoring descriptions. This first table 502 maybe called RESOURCE_MONITORING_CODE. The database 501 may contain asecond table 503 for storing result values. The second table 503 may becalled RESOURCE_MONITORING_RESULT. The first table 502 and the secondtable 503 may store multiple monitoring descriptions and multiple resultvalues, respectively. Monitoring descriptions and result values may beinserted into and removed from the database 501 by database requests.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating actions performed by a database anda monitoring task, according to embodiments. In a reception step 601,the database may receive a database request from a client. The databaserequest may store a monitoring description into the database. Accordingto embodiments, the database request may be an SQL INSERT query. At 602,the monitoring description may be copied to a location outside of thedatabase. The copy step may involve the execution of an SQL EXPORT queryto trigger the copy step. A detection step 603 may follow after the copystep 602. At 603, a monitoring task may detect that the monitoringdescription has been copied to a location outside of the database. At604, the monitoring task may perform a monitoring operation according tothe monitoring description. The monitoring operation may involvemeasuring a system characteristic according to the monitoringspecification. The monitoring operation may yield a result value. At605, the result value may be written into the database. According toembodiments, a database request may perform the write-back step 605. At606, the database may receive a database request from a client and maytransmit the result value to the client. According to embodiments, thisdatabase request may be an SQL SELECT query.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating actions performed by a database anda monitoring task, according embodiments. At 701, the database mayreceive a database request from a client. The database request may storea monitoring description into the database. According to embodiments,the database request may be an SQL INSERT query. At 702, the monitoringtask may send a database request to the database. According toembodiments, the database request sent by the monitoring task may be anSQL SELECT query. The monitoring task may obtain the monitoringdescription via this database request. At 703, the monitoring task mayperform a monitoring operation according to a specification from themonitoring description. The monitoring operation may involve measuring asystem characteristic according to the monitoring specification. Themonitoring operation may yield a result value. At 704, the result valuemay be entered into the database. According to embodiments, thewrite-back step 704 may be performed by a database request. At 705, thedatabase may receive a database request from a client and may transmitthe result value to the client. According to embodiments, said databaserequest may be an SQL SELECT query.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of a monitoring description in a filecontainer 801 according to embodiments. The monitoring description mayfeature an interpretable code file 802 and a metadata file 803. Theinterpretable code file 802 and the metadata file 803 may be twoseparate data files encapsulated by the file container 801. The filecontainer 801 may be a ZIP file. The interpretable code file 802 may benamed free_space.sh and may contain a shell script that may be run oncertain LINUX/UNIX systems. Upon execution, the shell script maydetermine the amount of free disk space available on the host system.The metadata file 803 may have the file name config.yaml. The metadatacontained therein may be stored in a markup language. For instance, thecontents of the metadata file 803 may be as follows:

PackageName: Available Disk Space

Executable: free_space.sh

Schedule: <schedule_rule>

Content: free_space.sh

The metadata file 803 may specify the name of the monitoringdescription, the name of a code file 802 which is to be executed orinterpreted, scheduling information, a list of non-metadata filesincluded in the monitoring description, etc. The schedule informationmay presently only represent symbolically here by the text string<schedule_rule>. According to embodiments, the metadata file 803 maycontain further data fields. For instance, a data field may containcommand line arguments for the executable or interpretable code.

Referring now to FIG. 9, illustrative cloud computing environment 50 isdepicted. As shown, cloud computing environment 50 comprises one or morecloud computing nodes 10 with which local computing devices used bycloud consumers, such as, for example, personal digital assistant (PDA)or cellular telephone 54A, desktop computer 54B, laptop computer 54C,and/or automobile computer system 54N may communicate. Nodes 10 maycommunicate with one another. They may be grouped (not shown) physicallyor virtually, in one or more networks, such as Private, Community,Public, or Hybrid clouds as described hereinabove, or a combinationthereof. This allows cloud computing environment 50 to offerinfrastructure, platforms and/or software as services for which a cloudconsumer does not need to maintain resources on a local computingdevice. It is understood that the types of computing devices 54A-N shownin FIG. 9 are intended to be illustrative only and that computing nodes10 and cloud computing environment 50 can communicate with any type ofcomputerized device over any type of network and/or network addressableconnection (e.g., using a web browser).

Referring now to FIG. 10, a set of functional abstraction layersprovided by cloud computing environment 50 (FIG. 9) is shown. It shouldbe understood in advance that the components, layers, and functionsshown in FIG. 10 are intended to be illustrative only and embodiments ofthe invention are not limited thereto. As depicted, the following layersand corresponding functions are provided:

Hardware and software layer 60 includes hardware and softwarecomponents. Examples of hardware components include: mainframes 61; RISC(Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture based servers 62;servers 63; blade servers 64; storage devices 65; and networks andnetworking components 66. In some embodiments, software componentsinclude network application server software 67 and database software 68.

Virtualization layer 70 provides an abstraction layer from which thefollowing examples of virtual entities may be provided: virtual servers71; virtual storage 72; virtual networks 73, including virtual privatenetworks; virtual applications and operating systems 74; and virtualclients 75.

In one example, management layer 80 may provide the functions describedbelow. Resource provisioning 81 provides dynamic procurement ofcomputing resources and other resources that are utilized to performtasks within the cloud computing environment. Metering and Pricing 82provide cost tracking as resources are utilized within the cloudcomputing environment, and billing or invoicing for consumption of theseresources. In one example, these resources may comprise applicationsoftware licenses. Security provides identity verification for cloudconsumers and tasks, as well as protection for data and other resources.User portal 83 provides access to the cloud computing environment forconsumers and system administrators. Service level management 84provides cloud computing resource allocation and management such thatrequired service levels are met. Service Level Agreement (SLA) planningand fulfillment 85 provide pre-arrangement for, and procurement of,cloud computing resources for which a future requirement is anticipatedin accordance with an SLA.

Workloads layer 90 provides examples of functionality for which thecloud computing environment may be utilized. Examples of workloads andfunctions which may be provided from this layer include: mapping andnavigation 91; software development and lifecycle management 92; virtualclassroom education delivery 93; data analytics processing 94;transaction processing 95; and database server system monitoring 96.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations may be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application, or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A database server system including a storagearrangement for storing at least one database and at least one processoroperable for receiving a database request over a computer network andaccessing the storage arrangement, wherein the processor is furtheroperable for carrying out a monitoring task, the monitoring taskcomprising: determining whether a monitoring description has been storedinto the database by the database request; in response to determiningthat a monitoring description has been stored into the database,performing a monitoring operation specified in the monitoringdescription, the monitoring operation yielding one or more resultvalues; and submitting a monitoring result request to insert the one ormore result values into the database.
 2. The database server systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the monitoring task is instantiated in avirtual memory address space, separate from a virtual memory addressspace assigned to operations for receiving the database request andaccessing the storage arrangement.
 3. The database server systemaccording to claim 1, wherein operations for receiving the databaserequest include receiving the monitoring description and writing it to afile on the storage arrangement, the file being external to thedatabase, and wherein the monitoring task checks whether the file hasbeen updated to obtain the monitoring description.
 4. The databaseserver system according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring task obtainsthe monitoring description by submitting a monitoring descriptionrequest to obtain the monitoring description stored in the database. 5.The database server system according to claim 1, wherein the database isa relational database and comprises a first table for storing themonitoring description and a second table for storing the at least oneresult value.
 6. The database server system according to claim 1,wherein the monitoring description comprises executable code forperforming the monitoring operation, and the monitoring task comprisesexecuting the executable code.
 7. The database server system accordingto claim 1, wherein the monitoring description comprises executable codefor performing the monitoring operation, and metadata related to theexecutable code, wherein the monitoring task uses the metadata to choosea procedure for executing the code.
 8. The database server systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the monitoring operation includesdetermining the amount of free storage space available on the storagearrangement.
 9. The database server system according to claim 1, whereinthe monitoring description is in a compressed data format.
 10. Thedatabase server system according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring taskhas restricted access privileges within the database server system. 11.The database server system according to claim 1, wherein the databaseoperations include deleting the one or more result values from fieldswithin the database according to a predetermined amount of time afterthe one or more result values have been inserted into the database. 12.The database server system according to claim 1, wherein software isprovided as a service in a cloud environment to establish databaseconnections between the database server system and one or more clients.13. A computer program product for performing a monitoring operation,the computer program product comprising a computer readable storagemedium having program instructions embodied therewith, the programinstructions readable by a database server system to cause the databaseserver system to perform a method comprising: determining whether amonitoring description has been stored into a database of the databaseserver system; in response to determining that a monitoring descriptionhas been stored into a database, performing a monitoring operationspecified in the monitoring description, the monitoring operationyielding one or more result values; and submitting a monitoring resultrequest to insert the one or more result values into the database. 14.The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein determiningwhether a monitoring description has been stored into the databasecomprises monitoring whether a file containing the monitoringdescription has been updated within a storage arrangement of thedatabase server system.
 15. The computer program product according toclaim 13, wherein determining whether a monitoring description has beenstored into the database includes submitting a monitoring descriptionquery to obtain the monitoring description stored in the database. 16.The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the computerprogram executes code for performing the monitoring operation, the codebeing contained in the monitoring description.
 17. The computer programproduct according to claim 13, wherein the computer program usesmetadata included in the monitoring description to determine how toexecute code for performing the monitoring operation, the code beingcontained in the monitoring description.
 18. The computer programproduct according to claim 13, wherein the computer program decompressesthe monitoring description to obtain executable code contained in themonitoring description.
 19. A method for monitoring a database serversystem, the method comprising: transmitting a monitoring description viaa database request over a computer network to the database server systemand storing the monitoring description into a database; determiningwhether the monitoring description has been stored into the database; inresponse to determining that the monitoring description has been storedinto the database, performing a monitoring operation specified in themonitoring description, the monitoring operation yielding one or moreresult values; submitting a monitoring result request to insert the oneor more result values into the database; and transmitting the one ormore result values over the computer network.
 20. The method accordingto claim 19, wherein monitoring operations are performed by a monitoringtask located in a virtual memory address space, separate from a virtualaddress space within which database operations are performed on thedatabase server system.